Dr. Paula R. Curtis

dos Santos brings up Geraldine Heng's recent discussion about teaching the global Middle Ages at MLA, where she brought up that everything can be a center (an idea we brought up earlier in discussion!)

He brings up the tensions at play with these questions of center, especially in relation to Iberian studies. In literary and linguistic approaches, collaboration can be quite rare and disciplinary compartmentalization also happens.

dos Santos’ paper highlights the interest in translations of Arabic science by King Alfonso X of Castile, particularly the Lapidario (Lapidary). Lapidaries were critical reference books on medical and magical properties attributed to stones. There are two issues at play here:

First, translation, which dos Santos says is “inevitable” for a global understanding of the Middle Ages. Alfonso X’s translations are part of a longer tradition dating to the 8th cen that engaged scientific & philosophical knowledge from Greek, Syrian, Persian, & Indian sources.

The stones themselves are also come from locations from across the world, so there's an opportunity to see the global implications of knowledge that go into the topics represented in the text as well.

Miniatures in the manuscript also demonstrate the global-oriented mindset and interest at hand, showing some of the local contexts for the stones.

Second, the issue of transmission: These get translated into Arabic for Abbasid imperial propaganda, & Alfonso X deliberately tries to create an intellectual genealogy through ideas of knowledge transference & power from East to West. Barriers are transcended to fashion his rule.

The lapidary manuscript thus becomes an embodiment of global exchange while also attempting to create broad claims through it, imbuing him with authority and reaffirming Castilian rule through access to/dissemination of knowledge.